was, as we have already noted, a belief held to a certain extent among
the Jews after the Babylonian Captivity. To the trace of this in the
tenth chapter of Daniel (vs. 13, 21), where Michael stands for Israel,
may be added the evidence afforded by the Greek Septuagint version of
Deuteronomy xxxii, 8, part of the “Song of Moses.” Here the Revised
version based on our Hebrew text reads:
He set the bounds of the peoples,
According to the number of the children of Israel.
The Septuagint translators, however, must have had a slightly different
text before them for they render the last words: “According to the
number of God’s angels.” It therefore seems probable that they read in
Hebrew _benê Elohim_ instead of _benê Yisrael_. Of the _benê Elohim_ or
“Sons of God” we read in Genesis, chapter vi, verse 2, that they wedded
with the “Daughters of Men.” This has been given a poetic form by Thomas
Moore in his “Loves of the Angels.” The Book of Job also, in its
Prologue in Heaven (i, 6–12), introduces the “Sons of God” among whom
appeared Satan, the “Adversary.” Of angel names, as has been noted,
there is Biblical warrant only for Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, the
last-mentioned, in the Apocryphal Book of Tobit; to these IV Esdras (not
a canonical book) adds Jeremiel and Uriel, names not admitted by the
Church.
[Illustration:
THE ANGEL RAPHAEL REFUSING THE GIFTS OFFERED BY TOBIT
By Giovanni Biliverti. Pitti Palace, Florence.
]
There has been preserved for us a most interesting calendar for the city
of Rome, written by Furius Dionysius Filocalus in 354 A.D., and
containing a series of drawings by his hand showing the symbolical
figures of the months of the year. Though the original manuscript is
lost, several apparently faithful copies exist, one of which is in the
Imperial Library in Vienna. Much of this work deals with matters
referring to the Roman calendar, but perhaps its most valuable part is a
list of the early Christian saints and martyrs. As this is the earliest
list of the kind, of even earlier date than the rest of the work, we
give it here unabridged, as a most interesting documentary proof of the
veneration in which the saints were held in the fourth, or, we should
probably say, in the third century.
ITEM DEPOSITIO MARTIRUM[494]
VIII kal. Jan. natus Christum in Betleem Judeæ. mense Januario.
XIII kal. Feb. Fabiani in Callisti et Sebastiani in Catacumbas.
XII kal. Feb. Agnetis in Nomentana. mense Februario.
VIII kal. Martias natale Petri de cathedra. mense Martio. non.
Martias. Perpetuæ et Felicitatis, Africæ. mense Maio.
XIIII kal. Jun. Partheni et Caloceri in Callisti, Diocletiano VIIII
et Maximiano VIII [304]. mense Junio.
III kal. Jul. Petri in Catacumbas et Pauli Ostense, Tusco et Basso
cons. [258]. mense Julio.
VI idus Felicis et Filippi in Priscillæ et in Jordanorum,
Martialis Vitalis Alexandri et in Maximi Silani. hunc
Silanum martirem Nouati furati sunt. et in Praetextatæ,
Januari.
III kal. Aug. Abdos et Semnes in Pontiani, quod est ad ursum
piliatum. mense Augusto.
VIII idus Aug. Xysti in Callisti et in Praetextati Agapiti et
Felicissimi.
VI idus Aug. Secundi Carpofori Victorini, et Seueriani Albano. et
Ostense VII ballisteria Cyriaci Largi Crescentiani Memmiæ
Julianetis et Ixmaracdi.
IIII idus Aug. Laurenti in Tiburtina.
idus Aug. Ypoliti in Tiburtina. et Pontiani in Callisti.
XI kal. Septemb. Timotei, Ostense
V kal. Sept. Hermetis in Basillæ Salaria uetere. mense Septembre.
non. Sept. Aconti, in Porto, et Nonni et Herculani et Taurini.
V idus Sept. Gorgoni in Lauicana.
III idus Sept. Proti et Jacinti, in Basillæ.
XVIII kal. Octob. Cypriani, Africæ. Romæ celebratur in Callisti.
X kal. Octob. Basillæ, Salaria uetere, Diocletiano IX et Maximiano
VIII consul. (304) mense Octobre.
pri. idus Octob. Callisti in via Aurelia. miliario III. mense
Nouembre.
V idus Nou. Clementis Semproniani Claui Nicostrati in comitatum.
III kal. Dec. Saturnini in Trasonis. mense Decembre.
idus Decem. Ariston in pontum.
This list, which begins with the great Christian festival of Christmas,
enumerates the days on which Roman martyrs died and were buried. The
months are given in their order and below their names appears a very
brief record, giving the day and place of burial and the name of each of
the martyrs. The first entry, for instance, reads: “January 20,
interment of Fabianus in the cemetery of Callistus.” The earliest
martyrs mentioned are SS. Perpetua and Felicitas who died in 202 A.D.;
thus all definite memory of the many martyrs of the first and second
centuries seems to have been lost. Even heretics do not appear to have
been excluded, for as it is stated that the Novatians carried away the
body of Silanus, it seems more than probable that he himself belonged to
this heretical sect. As martyrs, all are regarded as equally entitled to
the highest veneration, regardless of what they may have passed through
on earth. Other communities than the Roman one possessed similar lists,
as is clearly indicated by the words of Cyprian, in his thirty-ninth
epistle, where he says: “As you remember, we offered the sacrifice for
them, just as we celebrated a commemoration of the sufferings of the
martyrs and of their anniversary days.”
To many of the saints curative powers are attributed, and these powers
are usually specialized so that each of these saints is invoked for aid
against a different disease or defect. With very few exceptions it will
be found that some circumstance in the history or legend of the saint is
the origin of these beliefs. An exception may perhaps be made in the
case of the two saints to whom recourse is most frequent at the present
day, namely, St. Anthony of Padua (June 13) and St. Anne, the mother of
the Virgin Mary (July 26). Relics of the latter saint, preserved in many
parts of Europe and also in America, are regarded as endowed with
wonderful therapeutic powers. Recently, in New York City, at the church
of St. Jean Baptiste, a relic of St. Anne was shown to many thousands of
the faithful, and some wonderful cures are said to have been
accomplished by its aid. Sceptics will be inclined to attribute such
cures to the influence of suggestion, while Catholics will see in them a
proof of the power of the saint’s intercession on behalf of those who
repose their trust in her. St. Anthony is usually appealed to for
success in difficult enterprises, and more particularly for the
discovery of lost articles. Here the belief in the successful
intervention of the respective saints is more generalized and appears to
have grown up independently of any event chronicled in the legends, but
these instances are quite exceptional.
An exceedingly beautiful jewelled medallion said to have been given by
Pope Paul V, in 1614, to the Archbishop of Lisbon, Don Miguel de Castro,
shows in the centre the figures of the Virgin and Child, surrounded by a
setting of old Indian, table-cut diamonds. The archbishop donated this
to the Church of St. Antonia da Se, sometimes called the “Royal House of
St. Antonio,” for this church was built on the site of the house in
which dwelt the parents of St. Anthony, Don Martin de Bulhoes and Dona
Teresa de Azavedo, and in which the saint was born on February 6, 1195.
At his baptism he was given the name Fernando, but later he changed this
to Antonio. The great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 completely wrecked this
church, but the high altar wherein the medallion had been placed escaped
comparatively unharmed, and the jewel was found by some peasants, who
later sold it to the family of Machados e Silvas, in whose private
chapel it reposed until within a few years.
The shrine of St. Anne de Beaupré may be seen in the Basilica of
Beaupré, about 20 miles distant from Quebec. It stands on the site of a
small wooden sanctuary erected about the middle of the seventeenth
century by some Breton mariners who, when in imminent danger of
shipwreck while navigating the St. Lawrence, made a vow to build a
chapel to St. Anne, the dearly-loved patron saint of their native
province, at the spot where they should first come to land. St. Anne was
regarded in French Canada as the patroness of seafarers and hence a
large number of those who frequented her shrine were seafaring people.
However, even more were attracted by the report of the marvellous cures
of all kinds of diseases which were said to have taken place there.
Pilgrimages to this shrine continue to be made at the present time;
indeed, the number of those who thus testify to their belief in the
power of the saint has increased rapidly during the past thirty years.
In 1880 the pilgrims numbered 36,000; in 1900 the record showed 135,000,
and in 1910 the number had increased to 188,266, a proof that the
devotees are more and more convinced that St. Anne’s relics are the
sources of great healing virtue.
All of the numerous relics of St. Anne exhibited in Canada and elsewhere
are said to have come originally from the town of Apt in France, where,
according to Catholic tradition, her body was found by the Emperor
Charlemagne in 792, and it is related that when the reliquary covering
the holy body was opened a fragrance as of balsam emanated from the
interior. How the body was transferred to Apt from its resting place in
Palestine is a mystery not solved even in tradition, although some
believe that it was brought thither by St. Auspicius, known as the
Apostle of Apt. The Basilica of Beaupré contains five of these precious
relics; one of them was brought to Canada from the Cathedral of
Carcasonne, in France, about the year 1662, at the instance of
Monseigneur de Laval, first bishop of Quebec, and founder of Laval
University. This is the first joint of the middle finger of the saint.
The devotees at the shrine first saw this precious gift March 12, 1670;
it is adorned with two intersecting rows of pearls, forming a cross.
Another relic of peculiar importance is that given in 1892 by the late
Cardinal Taschereau. This is a bone from St. Anne’s wrist measuring four
inches in length. It is enclosed in a reliquary made of massive gold and
studded with precious stones, the gifts of those whose prayers to the
saint had been answered. In the ornamentation appear eight diamonds,
four amethysts, a fire opal, etc. At the bottom of the reliquary there
is a gold plate with the inscription: “Ex brachio S. Annae,” and a gold
ring set with twenty-eight diamonds. This jealously-guarded treasure is
exhibited in the shrine but once a year, from July 26 to August 2, a
period comprising St. Anne’s Day and the week following it; at other
times the reliquary is kept in the Sacristy, but may be seen on special
request.
A remarkable jewel in the treasury of the Basilica is the seal of Santa
Anna, elected president of Mexico in 1832. A golden eagle, with eyes
formed of two rubies, stands on a rock of lapis lazuli and bears the
stamp of the seal; resting on his spread wings is a sphere of lapis
lazuli in which the words “Diaz, Mexico,” are inlaid in letters of gold.
The seal is engraved with the initials of the president’s name,
surrounded by a design embodying the insignia of his office.
At the feast of St. Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia (d. circa
316), which occurs on February 3d in the Roman Church, the wick of a
candle is sometimes dipped in a vessel containing consecrated oil, the
throats of the faithful being then touched with this wick, to preserve
them from diseases of the throat. At other times the ceremony is
performed in a different way. The priest holds two candles, adjusted so
as to form a cross, above the heads of those who come to seek the
saint’s aid, and the following prayer is recited: “Through the
intercession of St. Blaise may God free thee from diseases of the
throat, and from every other disease. (Per intercessionem S. Blasii
liberet te Deus a malo gutteris et a quovis alio malo.)”
It is related that this saint in his travels, once meeting a poor woman
whose only child had swallowed a fish-bone, relieved the child of its
trouble by offering up a prayer and laying his hand upon its throat. In
the prayer he adjures all who may suffer from a like trouble to seek his
intercession with God.
St. Apollonia of Alexandria (February 9) is said to cure toothache and
all diseases of the teeth, the reason for this being that at her
martyrdom all her beautiful teeth were pulled out. In a similar way St.
Agatha, of Catania or Palermo, in Sicily, is endowed with the power to
cure diseases of the breast, because it is related that before her
martyrdom her breasts were cruelly torn and mutilated.
To recite the formula of St. Apollonia was considered by the Spaniards
of three centuries ago to be a cure for toothache. This fact is brought
out by a passage in Don Quixote, when the knight’s housekeeper is urged
to recite it for her master’s benefit when he is ailing. To this request
the woman quickly answers: “That might do something if my master’s
distemper lay in his teeth, but, alas! it lies in his brain.” This
formula was probably used before the age of Cervantes, and has persisted
to our own time. It is in verse and has been literally translated into
English as follows:[495]
Apollonia was at the gate of Heaven and the Virgin Mary passed that
way. “Say, Apollonia, what are you about?” “My Lady, I neither sleep
nor watch, I am dying with a pain in my teeth.” “By the star of Venus
and the setting sun, by the Most Holy Sacrament, which I bore in my
womb, may no pain in your tooth, neither front nor back, afflict you
from this time henceforward.”
Of Santa Lucia (December 13), born in Syracuse on the island of Sicily,
a strange legend is told. A young man fell passionately in love with
her, and wrote to her that her wonderful eyes pursued him even in his
dreams. Moved by the Scripture text, “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it
out,” and longing to save the youth from sensual passion, Lucia cut out
her beautiful eyes, placed them on a dish, and sent them to her lover
with the following message: “Here thou hast what thou so ardently
desirest; I beseech thee leave me in peace.” Very naturally, this saint
is believed to cure all diseases of the eye.
For protection against highway robbers and thieves, St. Nicholas
(December 6), Bishop of Myra, in Lycia, was invoked. Legend relates of
this saint that he restored to life three boys who had been murdered at
an inn by the wicked innkeeper, a wretch who was in the habit of making
away with his guests and then utilizing their bodies to enrich his menu.
This tale accounts for the fact that, under the familiar name of Santa
Claus, St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children.
St. Barbara (December 4), born in Heliopolis, is appealed to for
protection against lightning and injury by firearms. For this reason the
gun-room on a ship is called in French the _sainte-barbe_. The legend,
as usual, gives us the origin of the belief in the saint’s special
powers, for her heathen father is said to have been killed by a stroke
of lightning, because of his having denounced his daughter, as a
Christian, to the Roman authorities, and then executed judgment upon her
with his own hands. Of St. Barbara the legend says: “She was a fair
fruit from an evil tree.”[496]
Beneath portraits or images of St. Christopher (July 25) there often
appears a Latin verse to the effect that whoever gazes on the image will
not suffer from faintness or exhaustion on that day. As the saint is
said to have been of great size and strength, the worshipper at his
shrine was believed to acquire some of his physical power.
[Illustration:
SANTA BARBARA
French school, 1520. Leaf of a triptych in the Museum of Budapest.
]
The cure of diseases of the tongue was the province of St. Catherine of
Alexandria (November 25), who was famed for her eloquence as well as for
her devotion to the study of the Scriptures.
St. Roch, who was born in Montpelier toward the end of the thirteenth
century (d. August 16, 1327), is regarded as the special guardian of
those afflicted with plague or pestilence. In his lifetime he went from
place to place ministering to those who suffered from the plague until
finally he himself succumbed to this malady. So great was the repute of
St. Roch’s curative powers that the Venetians are said to have stolen
his body from Montpelier, where it was interred, and transported it to
Venice, that they might have ever-present help in the numerous
pestilences from which this city suffered, because of the constant
commercial intercourse with the East.
Another saint who was invoked for help in plague and pestilence was St.
Sebastian (January 20), born in Narbonne in Gaul. In this case the story
of the saint’s martyrdom gave rise to the belief in his curative powers,
for the legend tells us that he was transfixed with arrows, and these
missiles were regarded as symbols of the plague. We have an illustration
of this old belief in the first book of Homer’s Iliad, where the
pestilence that visited the army of the Greeks is represented as due to
the shafts sped from Apollo’s silver bow.
Although no curative powers are attributed to them, no one of English
speech should forget SS. Crispin and Crispian, on whose day the battle
of Agincourt was fought, in 1415. The old feud between France and
England has been long forgotten, the rivalry between these nations has
given place to a close friendship, and there is no trace of animosity in
the glow that warms an Englishman’s heart when he reads the ringing
words put by Shakespeare into the mouth of Henry V:
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered.
It is related by Metaphrastus that when St. George was condemned to
death by burning, his executioners (fearing that the flames of the pyre
might be extinguished because of his virtue) covered his body with a
garment of amiantos (asbestos); for it was believed that when this
material began to burn the flame could not be extinguished. But all
precautions were vain, for as soon as the saint was placed in the flames
the fire went out, contrary to the laws of nature, and not a hair of his
head was injured. This tale illustrates a curious but not unnatural
misunderstanding of the name asbestos, which really signifies
inextinguishable, but was intended to mean that the substance would not
burn, and hence that no flame could be extinguished in it.[497]
In an unpublished manuscript written by Aubrey are quoted the following
curious lines on the legend of St. George and the Dragon:[498]
To save a mayd, St. George the Dragon slew,
A pretty tale if all is told be true;
Most say there are no Dragons, and ’tis sayd,
There was no George; pray God there was a mayd.
The St. George thalers, coined by the counts of Mansfeld (Thüringen),
enjoyed in bygone times a reputation as amulets for soldiers. This
belief is said to have originated from the actual preservation of a
soldier’s life by one of these coins, which he had sewed up in the
lining of his coat just over his heart for safe-keeping. A bullet which
struck him here and would otherwise have killed him, was diverted by
coming in contact with the thaler. Hungarian St. George thalers were
regarded as amulets for sailors as well as soldiers. These coins derived
their name from bearing the design of St. George and the Dragon.
Among the wonder-working saints none enjoyed greater repute in medieval
times than Sainte Foy, the virgin martyr whose remains were taken from
Agen to the abbey-church at Conques, a village on the hills of Aveyron.
Pilgrims came from far and near to the shrine of Sainte Foy, for she
worked marvellous cures upon those who appealed to her for help, even
giving sight to the blind. Her grace appears to have been bestowed upon
animals as well as upon human beings, a fantastic legend relating that
she had raised donkeys from the grave! Naturally the pilgrims must bring
rich gifts, as otherwise the saint might turn a deaf ear to their
prayers.
Many of these treasures may still be seen in this out-of-the-way church,
wherein no one would suspect the existence of the rich specimens of
early goldsmiths’ work that are carefully preserved in the treasury. The
most interesting of these treasures is a statuette supposed to represent
the saint. This is a seated figure, about 33 inches high and encrusted
with an immense number of precious stones, uncut emeralds, sapphires and
amethysts, as well as with many cameos and pearls; all these having been
offered at various times to the saint.
The figure—probably the representation of some ecclesiastic—is seated
on an elaborate chair, originally surmounted by two golden doves. The
saint is said to have appeared in a vision to the Bishop of Beaulieu
and expressly directed this adornment; these doves have disappeared
and have been replaced by crystal balls. The execution of the
statuette—constructed of wood covered with gold plates—is stiff and
conventional, but it is not unimpressive and gives evidence of
considerable skill on the part of the artist. Nevertheless, it
certainly has nothing of the youthful grace we would associate with a
virgin martyr.[499]
The offering of precious stones to attract the favor of gods or saints
is really a talismanic use of such gems and is intimately connected with
the wearing of gems for their talismanic or therapeutic effect. The gift
established a sort of relation between the being whose help was desired
and the petitioner, and the gem was the medium through which the favor
was bestowed.
The legend of the royal princess who was canonized by the Church as St.
Enimie (d. 628 or 630 A.D.) contains an account of a miraculous spring
and also enshrines the popular view of the cause of the strange outlines
of an extensive mass of heaped-up boulders. This saint was a daughter of
the French king Clotaire II (d. 628). Her most ardent wish was to devote
herself exclusively to the service of Christ, but her royal parent
insisted upon a marriage with one of the great nobles. The princess, who
was the fairest of the fair, put up an earnest prayer that the Lord
would destroy her beauty, even at the expense of some dreadful malady,
so that she might cease to be an object of desire for men. Her prayer
was heard and she was stricken with leprosy which entirely blotted out
her charms. Not long after this an angel appeared to her in a dream and
directed her to bathe in the Fountain of Boule, in the region of
Gévaudan. On doing so she was immediately cured of her leprosy, but as
soon as she went away from the spring to return to the royal residence,
the malady returned. A second attempt had the same favorable and
unfavorable results, and she now recognized that she must remain near
the spring. So after bathing there a third time and being again
completely cured, she erected a monastery on the spot and became the
prioress. The institution flourished, but a few years later the saintly
prioress was horrified to see that the Devil was busy with her nuns.
Once more she sought for divine aid, and she was given authority to
imprison the Evil One should she catch him in the monastery. This she
did, but the Devil was crafty enough to make his escape. Near the spot
where the monastery stood was a mass of heaped-up boulders, through
which led a way called the Chasm Road which led to a rocky aperture of
unknown depth. This was fabled to afford egress and ingress to the Devil
in his passage out of and back to the infernal regions. Along this road
he fled when he escaped from the monastery; St. Enimie fearlessly
pursued, but the agile demon was on the point of slipping back again
into his own realm, when the saint made a supreme appeal and called upon
the rocks to help her. As she raised her arms in supplication, one of
the largest boulders, called “La Sourde,” moved of its own accord and
fell upon the Devil, pinning him fast to the ground beneath its
ponderous weight. In his rage and despair he made frantic efforts to
free himself and his bloody claws left an imprint on the rock. This
mark, still observable a half-century ago, though it has now
disappeared, was prosaically explained by scientists as a stain of
iron-oxide. The other boulders were in motion to assist in the good
work, but when the Devil had been caught they stopped short in their
downward course, and this is supposed to account for the strange angles
at which they stand.[500] It would be pleasant to fancy that His Satanic
Majesty eventually failed to make his escape, but unfortunately the
ever-recurring instances of his activity from the age of St. Enimie down
to our own time preclude this belief.